Title
Zero-energy pinning from interactions in Majorana nanowires
Date Issued
01 December 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid
Publisher(s)
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
Majorana zero modes at the boundaries of topological superconductors are charge-neutral, an equal superposition of electrons and holes. This ideal situation is, however, hard to achieve in physical implementations, such as proximitized semiconducting nanowires of realistic length. In such systems Majorana overlaps are unavoidable and lead to their hybridization into charged Bogoliubov quasiparticles of finite energy, which, unlike true zero modes, are affected by electronic interactions. We here demonstrate that these interactions, particularly with bound charges in the dielectric surroundings, drastically change the non-interacting paradigm. Remarkably, interactions may completely suppress Majorana hybridization around parity crossings, where the total charge in the nanowire changes. This effect, dubbed zero-energy pinning, stabilizes Majoranas back to zero energy and charge, and leads to electronically incompressible parameter regions wherein Majoranas remain insensitive to local perturbations, despite their overlap.
Volume
2
Issue
1
Number
12
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Física de partículas, Campos de la Física
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85051827599
Source
npj Quantum Materials
ISSN of the container
23974648
Sponsor(s)
Funding text
We thank K. Flensberg for illuminating discussions. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ramón y Cajal program RYC-2013-14645 and RYC-2011-09345, grant Nos. FIS2012-33521, FIS2013-47328-C2-1-P, FIS2014-55486-P, FIS2015-65706-P, FIS2015-64654-P (MINECO/FEDER), and the “María de Maeztu” Program for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2014-0377).
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus